ESPN is taking over all of sports. Need proof? Now the World Wide Leader is competing against … itself. Richard Deitsch, the first-rate media writer at Sports Illustrated, reported over the weekend that Hannah Storm — the former CBS morning host and former NBC Sports broadcaster before that — will anchor a new weekday morning SportsCenter on ESPN. Right now, ESPN just shows the replays of the late SportsCenter from the night before. In addition to Storm’s SportsCenter, there could be additional live SportsCenters in the morning.
What’s odd is ESPN’s stiffest sports competition will be over on ESPN2 where the mornings are filled with the Mike & Mike radio show and First Take, the revamped version of Cold Pizza. Strange ESPN is adding competition for itself, but give the network kudos for hiring the talented Storm.
Maybe it all means nothing, but if ESPN is going to throw a bunch of money at producing fresh SportsCenters, could that mean the ESPN2 lineup is in danger of getting cut? I kind of like First Take, but quite frankly, I’m not sure anyone would miss it or Mike & Mike, especially if the new SportsCenters add the latest in analysis and interviews.
Watching fans boo Kyle Busch after he won Saturday night’s race at Darlington, NASCAR must have been giddy. NASCAR fans’ hatred of Jeff Gordon has faded a bit in the past couple of years, partly because Gordon isn’t winning enough to hate anymore. The sport needs somebody new to hate. Busch is just that guy.
The Rays are no longer our little secret. On Fox’s coverage of the Yankees-Tigers Saturday, analyst Eric Karros said, "They’re going to be a factor all year.” Meantime, former Ray Eduardo Perez was singing the Rays praises on Baseball Tonight, even if he is still referring to them as the Devil Rays. Come on, Eduardo, it’s only been like six months since the name change.

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